1848 French presidential election
Presidential elections were held for the first time in France on 10 and 11 December 1848, electing the first and only president of the Second Republic. The election was held on 10 December 1848 and led to the victory of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte with 74% of the popular vote. This was the only direct presidential election until the 1965 French presidential election. The six candidates in the election, in order of most votes received, are Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte of the Bonapartists, Louis Eugène Cavaignac of the moderate Republicans, Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin of the Montagnards, François-Vincent Raspail of the Socialists, Alphonse de Lamartine of the Liberals, and Nicolas Changarnier of the Monarchists.
Image: Général Cavaignac photo Pierre Petit
Image: Ledru Rollin
Two boys, one holding a poster for Louis-Napoléon and the other for Cavaignac, fighting
Napoleon III was the first president of France from 1848 to 1852, and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 until he was deposed on 4 September 1870.
Portrait of Napoleon III, 1862
Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland (1778–1846), the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte and father of Napoleon III
Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837), mother of Napoleon III
The lakeside house at Arenenberg, Switzerland, where Louis Napoleon spent much of his youth and exile
